Apparently, I Killed The Virginia Tech Students

That's right - according to Jack Thompson, I'm responsible for thirty-two deaths and a suicide in the worst school shooting in United States history.

And it's eating a hole in my soul.

Let me explain.

Monday, April 16th, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho kills 32 people at Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Friday, April 20th, 2007. Jack Thompson, a medical malpractice attorney who's recently taken up the fight against video games, declares that it's the video game Counter-Strike that caused Cho to massacre 32 innocent people at Virginia Tech.

His tirade is documented on MSNBC: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18220228/

He goes so far as to write a letter to Bill Gates, the Chairman of Microsoft, in which he states:

Mr. Gates, your company is potentially legally liable (for) the harm done at Virginia Tech. Your game, a killing simulator, according to the news that used to be in the Post, trained him to enjoy killing and how to kill.

And while MSNBC got it right that Microsoft didn't actually create Counter-Strike, I must confess, Mr. Thompson caught me in a loophole.

You see - Microsoft Game Studios did publish an Xbox version of Counter-Strike in 2003. And what's worse - my name is on it.

I wrote the manual for that game.

Me. An educator - of death.

I can say now, without fear of doubt, that I have gained a sworn enemy in this world. In the eyes of Jack Thompson, I am the man that trained the Virginia Tech gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, how:

• To shoot with deadly accuracy


• To gain money by killing the opposing team members


• To not shoot hostages (he sort of ignored this rule)


• To buy weapons by standing in the "buy zone" and pressing X


• And to defuse the bomb by standing over it and holding X until the bar fills up

Yes, if only I hadn't done such a good job on that manual, maybe this would never have happened. But I did. I trained Cho to kill. He read my words and became a stone-cold killer.

Of course - there is hope.
Hope that I can get free of this prison.
Hope that I may somehow have my sentence of guilt and shame commuted.
Yes, there's hope.

There's just one simple thing you have to do. But I need you to all do it.

Believe me, it's simpler than clapping your hands. Quicker than clicking your heels together. Even easier than believing in fairies.

It's this: Don't listen to a single word Jack Thompson says.

While I can't say that Thompson is a liar, because, you know, he's a lawyer and he'll sue me for evilness, just use your heads.

Did a game make the choice for a man to kill? Or did that man make the choice himself? Thompson would have you believe one way. The simple way. The way that's easiest to explain.

And yet, all of your reason, common sense, and gut feelings would have you think the other. I'm telling you: believe what you think is right.

We'll see who comes out the other side.

Read More About Jack Thompson

Virginia Tech: The Answer is Active

My brain works differently than many, I guess. The question I posed as I read all about the recent school shooting at Virginia Tech was not why. It was how.

How did someone kill thirty-three people with a pair of handguns?

What makes me furious is that the aggressor was incredibly successful at his attack. Nobody stopped him. He killed two, mailed off a quick package to NBC, went right back to killing, and then stopped himself via suicide when he was all done.

Something is just incredibly inhuman about how linear the progression was.

Which is why it was a decidedly different voice that I noticed in sifting through the massive media barrage on this most recent tragedy.

Security Consultant Allen Hill: Teach Students to Be Aggressive

Said Hill: "There are things that you can do to take the initiative away from the bad guy, to disrupt their plan and to create a situation that’s winnable for you."

Exactly. Hill's statements are on target here. It is the people who refuse to cower under their desks, who refuse to line up to be shot, who take decisive action, that not only survive, but we award with the title of "hero" anytime we have a tragedy like the one at Virginia Tech.

So why aren't we teaching these "hero" traits?

It saddens me to hear this:

At Virginia Tech, Cho Seung Hui walked into classrooms and simply shot people. There are reports that he even lined up victims to shoot them one by one.

Lined up victims. This makes me the saddest of all. The fear of a possible death leads us to accept an assured death.

There's a self-defense point of view that goes under the simple name of "never get in the car". Don't trust an attacker, don't cooperate with an attacker, always fight.

We may not be able to avoid an aggressor. But we can sure avoid being lined up one by one to be executed.

One student turned the tables.

In one Norris Hall classroom, student Zach Petkewicz led his classmates in barricading the door, saving all inside.

That makes me breathe a little easier. A little.

I know that this isn't the last we'll hear of school shootings. And I don't think it's reasonable to wish for the day that we'll all be nervestapled enough to never know aggression ever again.

But I can still be satisfied and feel safe. When will that be? When I hear that the latest rampaging psychopath got away with zero victims, because the victims refused to submit to the almighty gun, knew their lives balanced on their ability to act, and did so, decisively and without hesitation.

I want to make it clear - the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, was responsible for the horrible outcome. Not any of his victims. Nobody can say for sure that what any of the victims did was right or wrong, because each was acting in their own best interest with what they knew at the time.

I think that's the most we can ask from anyone.

I also think that, starting now, we can give everyone a better chance to know more, do more, and save their own lives and the lives of others. We can turn potential victims into survivors. We can teach this. You can help. Start with yourself and your family.

Read up, train up, fight back.

Start here.

Published

Now that it's gone live, I can spill the details - I'm published in MSDN Magazine. The hard copies are going out soon, but the electronic version is available now, in 11 languages.

Check it out!

It's me and Michael Klucher, a fellow freedom fighter, introducing the world to XNA Game Studio Express. A great primer if you'd like to know exactly what this XNA Game Studio Express thing is all about, complete with source code to get you started.

Just personally, it's been an interesting crossover - sure, I've gotten plenty of words on paper, bits in the stream, what have you, but something's milestone-worthy about this, maybe because so many technical giants have contributed to MSDN Magazine, and it's an honor just to get in with the same folks, even if it's just an intro article.

I'm proud to have contributed, and happy that XNA Game Studio Express is going to get even more exposure. Check it out and see what you think.

Thanks to Stephen and the gang at MSDN Magazine for this opportunity!